I agree CConn. I always felt like Ra's was trying to exploit Bruce's hatred of criminals and used that as a means to focus his training and indoctrination. No matter how you try to rationalize it, it's still terrorism and Ra's still wanted to poison EVERYONE in Gotham, not just the criminals. How does that not make Ra's not worse than those criminals? See, he believes in what he's doing and he's convinced it's going to make the world a better place. That doesn't mean it's logical.

Where Bane and Talia went more extreme was how slowly they dragged out their plan and took over the city entirely. Simply destroying it wasn't enough for them. They wanted to actually punish Gotham and let the world watch helplessly.